Many personal care products currently available to consumers are directed primarily to improving the health and/or physical appearance of the skin. Among these skin care products, many are directed to delaying, minimizing or even eliminating skin wrinkling and other histological changes typically associated with the aging of skin or environmental damage to human skin. Other types of products are useful for imparting moisturization to dry skin, providing photoprotection for skin exposed to sunlight, and bringing about desired control of pigmentation, especially lightening of darkened or hyperpigmented skin.
Skin is subject to insults by many extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors include ultraviolet radiation (e.g., from sun exposure), environmental pollution, wind, heat or infrared radiation (IR), low humidity, harsh surfactants, abrasives, and the like. Intrinsic factors include chronological aging and other biochemical changes from within the skin. Whether extrinsic or intrinsic, these factors result in visible signs of skin aging and environmental damage, such as wrinkling and other forms of roughness (including increased pore size, flaking and skin lines), and other histological changes associated with skin aging or damage. To many people, skin wrinkles are a reminder of the disappearance of youth. As a result, the elimination of wrinkles has become a booming business in youth-conscious societies. Treatments range from cosmetic creams and moisturizers to various forms of cosmetic surgery.
Extrinsic or intrinsic factors may result in the thinning and general degradation of the skin. For example, as the skin naturally ages, there is a reduction in the cells and blood vessels that supply the skin. There is also a flattening of the dermal-epidermal junction which results in weaker mechanical resistance of this junction. See, for example, Oikarinen, "The Aging of Skin: Chronoaging Versus Photoaging," Photodermatol. Photoimmunol. Photomed., vol. 7, pp. 3-4, 1990, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
It has now been found that topical compositions containing select flavonoid compounds provide benefits in regulating skin condition previously unrecognized in the art of which the present inventor is aware. For example, such compositions regulate the signs of skin aging, especially visible and/or tactile discontinuities in skin texture associated with aged skin, including fine lines and wrinkles.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods for prophylactically and/or therapeutically regulating mammalian skin condition (especially of human skin, more especially human facial and body skin), using topical compositions containing flavonoid compounds.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods for prophylactically and/or therapeutically regulating signs of mammalian skin aging using topical compositions containing flavonoid compounds.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods for prophylactically and/or therapeutically regulating visible and/or tactile discontinuities in mammalian skin texture, including fine lines, wrinkles, enlarged pores, roughness, dryness and other skin texture discontinuities associated with aged skin, using topical compositions containing flavonoid compounds.
These and other objects of this invention will become apparent in light of the following disclosure.